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Bill Hayes grew up in a family in which the question "How'd you sleep?" was as much a staple at the breakfast table as orange juice or coffee, a question that encouraged genuine reflection and, as it turns out for the author, a legacy of life-shaping implications. If there's such a thing as an insomnia gene, he tells us at the outset of this beautifully written memoir, my father passed it on to me, along with his green eyes and Irish melancholy. Bill Hayes' life as an insomniac is rooted in the wry trappings of irony: his father ran a Coca-Cola factory, of all things. I've often wondered if all that sugar and caffeine altered my neurochemical makeup. Moving seamlessly to and from his present vantage point in San Francisco, Hayes' narrative affords an intimate look at one man's singular journey through contemporary life -- from his sleep-disturbed childhood through his sleepwalking in adolescence to the height of his insomnia, when his partner struggles with AIDS and Hayes must face an increasingly troubling and debilitating sleep disorder. Along the way, armed with an infectious curiosity and an obsession with the mysteries of his personal demons, Hayes leads us on a fascinating exploration of disorders such as sleep-talking, narcolepsy, and sleep apnea and contends with all manner of theories and experimentation, from the conceptions of sleep in ancient mythology to today's state-of-the-art sleeping aids and clinics. As with desire, sleep resists pursuit. It must come find you. Nevertheless, I look for it. This powerful book is the result of Bill Hayes' lifelong search for sleep.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For as far back as he can remember, Hayes has had trouble sleeping. He'd wander his parents' house at night, "existing on nothing but the fumes of consciousness," jealously wondering how everyone else slipped into dreamland so easily. From these nocturnal ramblings grew an unblinking, lifelong fascination with sleep (or the absence of it), which Hayes has transmuted into a skilled and graceful debut that variously reads like a journey of scientific discovery, a personal memoir and a literary episode of Ripley's Believe It or Not. Hayes, a freelance writer from San Francisco, chronicles all his attempts to secure a good night's rest, from folk remedies to psychotherapy to sleeping pills (which failed to provide relief: "The difference between drugged and natural sleep eventually reveals itself," Hayes writes, "like the difference between an affair and true romance"). In charting the struggle of scientists and philosophers throughout history to understand insomnia, Hayes produces a bonanza of oddball trivia. We learn the longest verified period without sleep was 180 hours, achieved in 1957 by an amphetamine-driven researcher, and that the presence of an internal biological clock was proved in 1955 by flying a hive of bees from Paris to New York on a newfangled jet. Intertwined with all these anecdotes are Hayes's recollections of growing up Catholic and coming to terms with his homosexuality. Though these memories have little to do with his reflections on insomnia, Hayes is such a fluid, poetic and entertaining writer that it doesn't matter. The explanation of how a researcher discovered REM (rapid eye movement) sleep by studying his own son, for example, is just as gripping as Hayes's descriptions of how he helped his partner manage his AIDS symptoms. An intelligent, beautifully written book, Hayes's curious hybrid will delight readers who snore past dawn as well as those who pace away while the midnight oil burns. Agent, Wendy Weil.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Read this one, savor it, just dont take it to bed with you. -- Out, April 2001

"Who knew insomnia could be so much fun?" -- Kirkus Reviews, February 15, 2001

Robert Pinsky Poet Laureate of the United States, 1997-2000 Like the most rewarding kind of travel writer, Bill Hayes is both informative and personal as he takes us through the borderlands of sleep and waking, mysterious yet familiar. I'm grateful for the way this intimate, reflective and factual guidebook captures the feeling of that terrain. -- Review

[A] graceful hybrid of a book thats half research treatise and half memoir." -- Entertainment Weekly, March 9, 2001
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Top customer reviews

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This is a book that cannot decide what wants to be. The parts that try to be a memoir deserve from two to five stars as the book proceeds. I don't really care to read about generic suburban childhoods - please stop including them in memoirs - but it is in his first-person accounts of life as a young gay man during the AIDS epidemic in the latter parts of the book where the author finds his voice. On the other hand, the parts that try to be a popular account of the history of sleep research are at best mildly interesting and deserve only two stars. Splitting the difference, it pains me to give it only three stars, because I really like the author and would like to see more of his work. (A recent essay of his in the New York Times, "A Year in Trees", had me in tears.) There is much that is mysterious, exciting, and illuminating about the modern science of sleep, but this book is not the place to read about it. In my opinion, the book would have worked better as a real memoir, with the theme of insomnia and sleep science perhaps limited to short epigraphs at the start of each chapter.

I found Sleep Demons, An Insomniac's memoir, to be an excellent and intriguing study of the history of sleep. From discoveries, to theories, to even the `average Joe's' thoughts and input. Bill Hayes gets a five across the board for an overall performance.

I found Sleep Demons, An Insomniac's memoir, to be an excellent and intriguing study of the history of sleep. From discoveries, to theories, to even the `average Joe's' thoughts and input. Bill Hayes gets a five across the board for an overall performance.

This fascinating memoir weaves in facts about sleep disorders (including insomnia and somnambulism) and the study of sleep all in with the story of Hayes's life. Each chapter uses aspects of his life as a springboard for a discussion of things related to sleep. Sometimes the details almost became monotonous or tedious, but Hayes's style kept me interested in the intriguing details and little known information. I learned so much in this book, as well as thoroughly enjoyed the various reminiscences of Hayes's life, like his apparently inherited insomnia, his partner Steve's battles with HIV, and his search for a "cure" for his insomnia. He ultimately doesn't find an absolute cure, but rather he must come to grips with his unique sleeping patterns. This is an amazing memoir sure to fascinate even those who enjoy a good night's sleep.

Sleep Demons is part memoir, part discussion of sleep and sleep disorders by Bill Hayes, a self-described agnostic gay insomniac. I found both the memoir and the sleep information intermittently interesting: Some of the scientific sections came off as dry and tedious to me, and I wasn't expecting to read so much about Hayes's active sexual life. Of particular interest to me were his childhood and family life, and then later years living in San Francisco with his partner, Steve, who was HIV-positive and later developed AIDS. The first-person narrative of their life at this time was intriguing and touching, and was what ultimately made me glad to have read Sleep Demons. I'd like to have given it 3 1/2 stars, but felt 4 was too high for my thoughts on the book. So 3 stars it is.

Sleep Demons is a beautiful, poetic book that masterfully weaves science with storytelling. Hayes is one of the most peotic writers of recent memory. He weaves the story of his life with the development and findings of sleep science. He is a lifetime insomniac and documents his struggle and ultimate understanding of the meaning of sleep and insomnia in his life. He grew up in Spokane and ultimately moves to San Francisco during the height of the AIDS epidemic. His experiences and description of San Francisco at that time is one of the most beautiful, true representations of that era. He brilliantly captures the emotional and very personal toll the AIDS epidemic has on an individual and a couple. The book is also a love story, describing the relationship he has with his longtime partner, Steve who has AIDS. Their relationship is inspirational. The book is many things all at once -- a primer on sleep, a memoir, a love story. And the book is at times, gut wrenchingly funny. Hayes has a great sense of humor and his keen, smart observations of the everyday are right-on and very funny. I laughed and cried reading this book. He has the rare ability to be simply descriptive and write moving, poetic prose at the same time. I can't remember a book that so succesfully combines genres so beautifully and succesfully. I couldn't put the book down and was sorry to see it end.

When I first saw this book at my local library, I pounced on it with great excitement. From the jacket notes, I was expecting an interesting melange of fact and memoir. Instead, the book is slim on facts--Mr. Hayes seems to be more fascinated with the scientists who have studied sleep rather than their findings--but rich in memoir. The author recalls interesting scenes from his childhood and adolescence, some of which involve his sleep and sleep routines, but most which don't. I found the description of his coming out poignant; and I read, on the edge my seat, about his lover's changing HIV status. The author should have stuck to memoir or perhaps even have fictionalized his own story (from which he seems able to pull the best parts) and left his thin description of sleep disorders out of the manuscript.